Bible: The Only Religion of Proven Divine Origin

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Moses addresses the Jews recalling events:

When you please inquire about the first days that came before you, ever since God created man on earth, from one end of heaven to the other, has anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been heard? Has any people heard the voice of God speaking out of a fire, as you have, and survived? Or has God ventured to go and take one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and awesome power, as your God Hashem did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 

Moses then explains the lessons of those events:

It has been shown to you, to know, that Hashem alone is God; there is none else. From the heavens God let you hear the divine voice to discipline you; on earth God showed you the great fire; and from amidst that fire you heard God’s words. And having loved your ancestors, God chose their heirs after them; [God] personally—in great, divine might—led you out of Egypt, to drive from your path nations greater and more populous than you, to take you into their land and assign it to you as a heritage, as is still the case. 

Know therefore this day and keep in mind that Hashem alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. Observe God’s laws and commandments, which I command upon you this day, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may long remain in the land that Hashem your God is assigning to you for all time. (Deut. 4:32-40)

You shall not add anything to what I command you or detract anything from it, but keep the commandments of your God that I command you. (Deut. 4:2) 

Observe only that which I command upon you: neither add to it nor detract from it.

(Deut. 13:1)

Moses Crucial Message

Moses first recounts events, and then derives their meaning. First, Moses urges the Jews to review all world history to affirm that God never communicated a religion to a nation, as He had communicated the Bible to the Jews at Mount Sinai. And this remain true through today. Yes, individuals like Jesus and Mohammed claimed “private” communication from God, but that claim cannot be verified, so their claims prove nothing. And further, to discount all other religions except the original Jewish Bible, Moses recounts God’s miraculous selection of the Jews from the clutches of Egypt, revealing their false gods were defenseless against God’s 10 plagues. God then vanquished all other nations from before the Jews en route to Israel, which rejects those other pagan religions. Moses proved it was God who performed this, as He is the only being that can produce intelligent voice from inside fire, which 2 million Jews witnessed at Mount Sinai (Saadia Gaon). Thus, the God of Bible is not a physical god that could perish inside fire. But the God of Bible is the one being that created and controls the universe. For Moses clarifies that there was never a similar event displaying control over the heavens and the Earth as God displayed at Sinai, proving there is no other creator: nothing else but God caused the existence of the universe. That communication of Bible on Mount Sinai is a religion of divine origin given by the universe’s Creator. There is no competing event where a nation witnessed God giving them a religion, thereby making the Bible the only religion God ever gave to man. All other religions are without validation.

The Lessons

God is not physical.

God gave man a religion only once: that religion is the Jewish Bible.

The Jews are the only recipients of God’s religion.

That Bible may not be altered at all (Deut. 4:2, 13:1), rejecting the New Testament, the Koran and all other religions.